Hits

Misses

Aileron servo wire channel

Back former not relieved sufficiently

Tail Wheel too flimsy

2-56 hardware (should be 4/40)

Introduction

Almost everyone will agree that bigger flies better, but not
everyone can afford to go as big as they like or they just don’t have the space
to haul a larger airframe.In
addition, we all know that ARF’s are filling the bill for many more pilots
these days as the availability of free time continues to decrease.Lanier is satisfying the need for an
affordable aerobatic ARF that can “fly big” with their ARF Edge 540.The Edge design is well known for its
excellent slow-flight and 3D capabilities.Lanier is offering this “big” performance in a quick-building ARF that
is convenient in size and much more affordable and manageable than the larger
gas-burning monsters.

The Kit

The kit contents are very complete, including the gear,
axles, wheels, wheel collars, gas tank, hinges, control horns, and control
linkages.The control linkage
components are adequate for engines on the low end of the recommended range but
I would think that most people would go with something on the upper end and
need to replace the hardware with 4/40 components. The Ultracote covering job
was great, with no loose ends or exposed areas to be found.A few wrinkles in the Fuselage were easily
removed with a heat gun.The cowl and
wheel pants are fiberglass and painted to match the Red/White covering
scheme.Also included are
pressure-sensitive decals for the wings and fuselage sides.I found a couple of areas in the fuselage
where more glue needed to be applied.This seems to be a familiar tune with ARF’s from any manufacturer these
days.The instructions are well written
and include pictures for almost every step of the process.They were the best I’ve seen for any Lanier
kit.

Wing Construction

The wings are balsa-sheeted foam with an aluminum wing tube
used to mount them to the fuselage.This makes transportation to the field much easier than a single 73”
wing.The wings are attached to the
fuselage with a socket-head bolt through the top of the wing into the aluminum
tube.A hole must be drilled through an
embedded dowel in the top of the wing and the wing tube, then tapped to receive
the bolt. After attaching the wings I
found the incidence of the left wing to be exactly zero with the thrust line
and the right wing was at +1/4 degree, pretty close to perfect. The wings come
already hinged for the included Robart Hinge Point hinges and were well aligned
with the holes in the ailerons.I used
30-minute epoxy in a baby syringe to attach the ailerons to the wings.The aileron mounts are already cut out from
the bottom of the wing and have mounting beams installed.There is a channel cut through the wing to
run the aileron wires.On my kit,
however, this channel had two problems: It wasn’t cut long enough to reach the
servo well and it wasn’t aligned in the right direction to have met the servo
well even if it had been long enough.I
used a coat hanger entered through the servo well to remove foam between the
well and the channel.I’ve heard that
more recent kits don’t have this servo channel issue.I installed Cirrus CS65 servos and used 4/40 hardware for the
aileron connections.Lastly, I installed
the pressure sensitive decals to the wings.These really help dress-up the overall appearance.

Tail Feathers

The tail feathers are built-up construction with balsa
sheeting and are already drilled for the hinge-points.The stabs are attached to the fuselage with
an aluminum tube and can be removable if desired but I opted to epoxy them into
place.To keep the tail light, I opted
to install a single rudder servo and single elevator servo under the canopy.This turned out to be a good idea because I
had to put my receiver battery pack at the very front of the engine box to get
the CG at the recommended location.The
problem was that the back former wasn’t relieved enough to accommodate the
elevator pushrod or rudder pull/pull cables.I opened up the left elevator servo mounting area and used a Dremel
sanding wheel to create the clearance I needed.I used a Cirrus CS65 servo connected to a Dave Brown carbon fiber
shaft and split 4/40 rods for the elevators, and another CS65 servo for the
pull/pull rudder control.

Fuselage Front Hatch/Canopy

The canopy/front hatch area held in place in the front with
two dowel rods into the front former, and at the back with two bolts.In the past I’ve seen this type of mount
develop a rattle where the dowels insert into the former so I removed them and
added two more bolts at the front of the canopy.The clear canopy was well marked for cutting and was attached
using RC56 glue.Its an overlap fit on
all sides so it mounts very easily.I
then used red automotive striping tape to trim the canopy edge all the way
around.

Landing Gear

All of the hardware is included for the landing gear, with
very lightweight wheels.The gear is
held onto the fuselage with two bolts up through a piece of ¼” light ply.I recommend coating the bolt mounting area
with some thin CA and use some larger washers on the inside of the fuselage to
keep from crushing the wood.

Engine

I chose to use an OS160FX and a Bisson Pitts muffler,
wanting a lot of power without excess weight.I’ve heard of others using gas engines on the Edge but I wouldn’t
recommend it because of the weight penalty.I mounted the OS on its side using a modified Great Planes adjustable
.90-1.20 engine mount.The engine was a
little too wide to use the mount at its widest setting so I disconnect the two
sides and removed the areas that would have normally been connected, making two
separate mounting halves.This makes
for a very lightweight mount that has now survived several “very wild”
flights.The top of the upper mount
half had to have a little material removed (Dremel sanding drum) to keep it
from rubbing against the top of the cowl.To give right thrust, I used an Ernst 2-degree thrust plate behind the
engine mounts.To give longer flight
times, I replaced the fuel tank included in the kit with a 20-ounce tank from
Dubro.This required that I enlarge the
hole in the front former to accommodate the larger tank, and I installed a sub
floor to support the tank on the bottom.The tank rests on a piece of ¼” foam and is held in place with
cable-ties.For fueling, I used a
Dubro “Fuel It” kit and an extra fill line to the tank.The engine was finished off with a beautiful
Tru-Turn spinner and adapter nut for the OS160.The spinner fits fine over the Pro-Zinger props but will need to
be cut if a large APC is to be used.The throttle is controlled with a Hitec HS425 servo.A plywood plate is provided to cover the top
of the engine box but I chose not to use it.The firewall is certainly strong enough to hold the engine without
it.

Cowl

To accommodate the OS160 and Bisson muffler, I used my
Dremel to remove a significant amount of fiberglass at the back of the bottom
to provide a lot of airflow.The top
was relieved to clear the engine head, needle valve, and idle needle.The cowl was then attached to the fuselage
with four #4 screws into small pieces of nyrod (not included) glued into the
fuselage side.I added two additional
mounting blocks on the underside to provide additional support near the cutout
areas of the cowl.

Radio

I used a Hitec Supreme 8 FM receiver mounted on Velcro under
the canopy, powered by a 5-cell 1500mah nicad pack mounted on the left side of
the engine box.This put the CG at the
recommended 4 ¾” back from the wing leading edge.The receiver antenna was routed out to the fuselage bottom and
held in place using red automotive trim tape.My transmitter is a Futaba 8UAPS set to FM to match the receiver, and
programmed to use two different channels (1 and 6) for the aileron servos.This allows me to program flaperons for
3D.Always wanting to try something
new, I used an Expert voltage monitor.It’s a small printed circuit board with high-intensity LEDs that
indicate the condition of your receiver pack, plugged into an extra receiver
port.There are two offered: one for
4-cell packs and one for 5-cell packs and each only cost about 15 bucks.I mounted it on the side of the fuselage
just in front of my switch.It is on
whenever your switch is on and makes it way too easy to see the condition of
your receiver pack.I’ll be using them
again.

Preflight

Prior to flying I broke-in the OS160 following the
instructions, using 15% Omega fuel, an OS#8 plug, and a Pro-Zinger 18x6
prop.I initially tried to start it
with my starter but it wouldn’t turn it over.Using a small piece of 1” PVC pipe, it fired right up on the third
flip.It now starts very easily by
setting the throttle at a high idle, applying the glow driver, and flipping
backwards against compression with my PVC pipe.Initially the engine was running rich in the midrange but it has
now cleared up after a gallon of fuel.

I applied the rest of the decals to the Edge but still
wanted a few more so I made some using my STIKA vinyl cutter.I’ve never regretting buying it, sharing the
cost with another club member.The hard
part is deciding when to stop adding graphics to a plane.

Ready to fly the Edge weighed 11lbs, 10 ounces on the scales
at my local post office.This was less
than any others I had heard of with the same engine.I attribute it to the single elevator servo, Bisson muffler,
lightweight engine mount, leaving off the top of the motor box, and not needing
any nose-weight as others have indicated doing.

The control throws were set at the recommended settings on
low rates, with “all I could get” as the high rates.I also used a significant amount of exponential (60-80%) on the
high rate settings, making the plane more manageable around the centers.

Flying

The first flight was performed with the high-speed needle
set pretty rich but it was still easy to tell that the OS was going to be way
enough engine for the plane.It needed
a couple of clicks of aileron to fly level, probably due to the ¼ degree of
difference in the wing incidences, and two clicks of down elevator.At the low rates it felt like a pattern
plane, very smooth through all attitudes though the elevator was a little too
sensitive.After a couple minutes of
mid-range flying the OS died and it was time to test the glide path.It glides VERY well and easily made it back
to field, actually going too far.A
little tweaking on the needle and we were in the air again.The third test flight nearly ended in disaster
when the rudder suddenly got stuck with about 15 degrees of right throw.The
rough landing cracked the landing gear mount loose.Afterwards we determined that the tail wheel had been rubbing on
the bottom of the rudder and eventually grabbed it and locked it in place.The metal arm must have gotten bent on the
previous two landings, both of which were very smooth.The tail wheel was certainly not strong
enough for the task.

With a new Sullivan tail wheel assembly (S-861) and repaired
main gear mount it was time to complete the flight tests.Knife-edge showed a little tuck to the belly
on both sides, with a 7-8% mix needed to remove it.The roll coupling was very small, only taking 2-3% mix to
remove.The vertical performance is
spectacular, easily pulling out of a hover or torque roll with power to
spare.The two degrees of right thrust
appears to be perfect, as up lines are totally hands-off.On the low rates I went through the IMAC
Sportsman sequence several times and felt very comfortable through all
maneuvers.At the recommended throws I
found the ailerons a little too slow and the elevator a little too sensitive
for precision work.Snaps start and
stop right now, I undershot the first few I tried, and stalls are dead straight
ahead.Knife-edge snaps are very solid.
It doesn’t want to keep snapping with rudder applied, as some other planes will
do.With 3D rates, upright harriers
showed a little wing wagging without any spoileron applied, but it doesn’t get
out of control.Rudder easily steered
it around.Inverted harriers were dead
solid.The Edge does VERY fast,
spin-to-a-blur blenders without any signs of fatigue.And once stalled, just a blip of the throttle has it flying
again.It also easily does knife-edge
loops.Landings can be as slow as you
like, just get the nose up and keep a little power to float it on down.After three gallons the OS has yet to flame
out since the first day and is really coming on strong.Most flying is done at half throttle.

Summary

This Edge/OS160 combination is a great one.The flight capabilities, weight, and power
provide the full range of performance that people are looking for.In a few evenings you have a great entry plane
into IMAC flying and one that is also good for learning to fly 3D.The overall size and removable wings make it
easy to transport in smaller vehicles, and the construction and covering quality
were great.I’ve let several other
club members try the sticks and all have said it’s a “fun” airplane.The novices like the low-rate, low-speed stability
and the experts like the fact that there’s nothing it can’t do when the rates
are turned up.